Malaysia: Lonely girl makes 5,000 prank calls to fire dept

Malaysia: Lonely girl makes 5,000 prank calls to fire dept

MALAYSIA - A TEENAGE girl made 5,000 prank calls to the Larkin Fire and Rescue Department in Johor just because she was lonely, reported Harian Metro.

The girl, 17, made the calls almost daily for the past few months, asking the officers on duty to spend time talking to her while she told them about her social life and personal problems.

The authorities managed to trace the girl while she was making one of the calls from her mobile phone.

"We have advised her to stop making such calls and decided not to take further action," said Fire and Rescue officer Abdul Ghaffar Mohd Amin.

"However, not long after, she changed her mobile phone number and resumed the prank calls," he said.

It is learnt that about half of the 24,000 calls to the Johor Fire and Rescue Department last year were pranks.

Those making such calls can be fined a maximum RM5,000 ($2,085), or jailed more than three years, or both.

Kosmo! reported that the 800,000 students at institutions of higher learning should be able to secure jobs when they graduate.

The daily quoted Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin as saying that although the economy was going through a slowdown, there were still job opportunities with new businesses being established.

He said that based on the ministry's research, about 80% of diploma and bachelor's degree holders managed to secure a job within six months of completing their studies.-The Star/ANN

Source: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20090205-119543.html